News stories by Jayantha Dhanapala

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Mar 28 (IPS) - U.N. anniversaries are occasions for stocktaking - not all of it positive. But there is a lot of good that the U.N. has done and is doing and there are many good, dedicated people working silently but effectively within the U.N. system where I have also worked for a part of my long diplomatic career.

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 19 (IPS) - A nuclear weapon-free world can and must happen in my lifetime. This may seem a bold and wildly Pollyannaish statement for me to make after a lifetime of work in peace and disarmament.

UNITED NATIONS, Dic 04 (IPS) - Mahatma Gandhi said it with remarkable moral clarity – "An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind." That is indeed what happened in Gaza over eight days in November, with an estimated 160 Palestinians and six Israelis dead in the latest exchange of rockets and drones brought to an uneasy end by an Egyptian brokered ceasefire.

Years ago, at the height of the Cold War on 26 June 1963 President John F. Kennedy famously proclaimed in Berlin, 'Ich bin ein Berliner' identifying himself with the beleaguered city where a wall had just been erected isolating West Berlin and its citizens. Years later, from July 1-4 2011, over 330 Pugwashites from about 43 countries converted themselves to being Berliners striving to break down the walls among and around them.